Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Jack Ferraiolo Interview

In November, I was able to meet Jack Ferraiolo at a book signing with Tom Angleberger and Michael Buckley at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville. We ate fabulous Lou Malnati's pizza before the book signing and I got to chat with Jack about his books, book banning, his family, his writing, his writing for Word Girl, my writing, and lots of other nonsensical stuff. There was never a dull moment sitting next to this hysterical guy who is full of humor and wit but can also talk seriously and candidly about writing. Writing questions for this interview was so much fun and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed working with Jack. You can read Jen's review of Sidekicks and we hope you grab a copy to read and find our for yourself how awesome it is.

TMT: As
I’ve been brainstorming questions for this interview, I’ve been thinking about
superpowers! Your main characters in Sidekicks are superheroes and Word Girl
and Captain Huggy Face, as superheroes, encounter many villians. Have you been
a fan of superheroes since you were young? Did any reading you did when you
were young influence your love of superheroes?

Jack Ferraiolo: I’ve
been a fan of superheroes since I’ve been alive and conscious. I used to LOVE
the Adam West Batman, and could never understand why people laughed at it
(“Batman and Robin are in MORTAL DANGER!! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!?”) I also
LOVED the Superfriends Saturday morning cartoon, even though that show made my
favorite superhero (Batman) little more than a babysitter for the Wonder Twins
(later, I found out it was because they couldn’t show any of the characters
hitting each other…and a Batman that can’t punch is a pretty limp Batman). I
also read a ton of comic books…In fact, I’m pretty sure the first thing I ever
read was a “Double Danger at the Daily Bugle!” a Spiderman/Daredevil comic book
(where they teamed up against Electro and Blizzard…) One of the first books I
got as a present was a big Batman compendium. My parents were so sick of it being the only book I was
interested in taking out of the library (and dealing with my tantrum/depression
when it was already taken out) that they finally just broke down and bought it
for me.

I
read comics throughout my childhood… Then, when I was about 13, I read Born
Again and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, and The Watchmen by Alan
Moore… And wow…talk about a light going on in my head. Sure there was violence
and swearing and other unsavory things going on (which I had never seen in a
comic book context before), but what affected me the most was the way those
stories took the hero/villain conventions, broke them down, and really
questioned them. What is a hero?
Or a villain? And what happens when the motivations for each start to seem very
similar? Can you really tell them apart?

If
I could have a superpower, it would be to teleport. I would love it if I could
come home from work, teleport myself to the beach for a few hours, in Hawaii no
less, and then come home. What superpower would you choose to have?

I
would definitely choose the ability to pause time for thirty to forty-five
minutes… That’s not enough to disrupt the whole space-time continuum, but
enough to get in a few levels of Arkham City without being interrupted every
five seconds… On a different note, I’ve noticed that my idea of an awesome
superhero power has changed drastically since I was a kid. Then, I was all like “I want super
speed! And strength! And I’d like to fly!!!” Now, I’m like “I want 30 minutes
of peace and quiet.” My second choice for a superpower was to be able to get
out of bed without my feet hurting, but that was way too sad…

I
love to tell people that besides writing novels, you also created and write for
Word Girl! And you are the voice of the Butcher! It seems like writing for the
show might be a more collaborative effort. How is your writing experience
different whether you are writing for a television show or for your novels? Do
you think about what the audience will be seeing the character do? Do you have
to write that into your script? (Your writing for Word Girl is completely
fascinating to me...)

In
a lot of ways, the writing process is similar. Eventually, it’s about me
sitting down at the same time every day, banging the keys on my computer, and
constantly reminding myself that I have to at least pretend like I know what
I’m doing. Scriptwriting is a lot less intimidating, especially when you get to
the revision process. A script is so airy…full of white space… If you change
something on page four, there are only 18-20 pages after that to go through and
keep consistent. Change something
on page four of a book, however, and you really feel the weight of those big
hunks of prose that come after.

It’s
funny, because whether I’m writing a book or a script, I always try to picture
what the audience will be seeing. It’s just that in a script, I don’t have to
describe it as much. The directors and animators that I’ve worked with have
been amazing…all I’ve had to do was describe something minimally, then watch as
they take it in awesome new directions. There was a learning curve there when I
started writing books… “You mean, I have to describe EVERYTHING that
happens? Seriously?”

Word
Girl has so many unique characters. (Nocan is my favorite! And Huggy, he’s
cute.) Do you have any tips for young writers about using dialogue in their
writing? Maybe about how you are able to portray a character and his or her
personality through the use of dialogue only.

One
of the greatest projects I did in college was for a sociology class. The professor made us record a family conversation
(had to be with four or more people present). Then we had to transcribe the
conversation and analyze it. We noted the amount of times people introduced
different subjects, which subjects introduced by which people were picked up by
the group for further discussion (and which were left to “die on the vine”),
how many times people were cut off mid-sentence, etc… Just the normal rhythms of conversation that we take for
granted, but when studied, really reveal the dynamics of the group and the different
personalities involved. Each individual had their own verbal tics that revealed
both their subconscious image of themselves within the group dynamic, and how
they felt about the others they were talking to.

What
I learned is that how a character speaks is as much an indication of that
character’s self-image, status, personality, etc. as what that character is
saying. And how when we’re in a conversation with someone, we often filter a
lot of those tics out (have you ever counted how many times you or someone
you’re talking with finishes a sentence with “You know?”), but the rhythm of
that conversation will take on the dynamic of the relationship between the
people conversing. So my advice? Record conversations (let the people
involved know you’re recording it, for god’s sake!)…or if you’re involved in a
conversation with a lot of people, just sit back and listen for awhile…and
really try to be conscious of the rhythms of the conversation that you usually
take for granted. Listen to the pauses…the things people say or do to fill the
awkward spaces in the conversation…who tries to dominate the conversation…who
tries to challenge that “dominator,” and who just gives in…

Sidekicks
has such a great boy appeal right from the beginning, but it also has a sort of
star-crossed lovers storyline that I really think would also appeal to girls.
Where did you get the idea for Sidekicks?

Well,
in the late sixties through to the seventies, DC decided to start aging Robin
up…but they never changed his costume. So, they have this college-aged guy,
wearing the smallest green jockey shorts in the world, flying around kicking
and punching people. Even as a ten year old, I knew that couldn’t have been
comfortable for anyone involved.

That
idea stuck with me, and after I wrote The Big Splash, I started thinking of new
ideas for books…and this idea of chronicling the moment when a superhero
sidekick realizes that he’s outgrown his identity (and his costume) kept coming
back to me. It seemed the perfect way to describe some moments that I
experienced in middle school…those days when you have the sudden, painful
realization that some of the things you used to enjoy (as a “younger” kid) were
no longer “age appropriate.” Adjusting to that new reality was hard, especially
if you didn’t realize you were doing something “wrong” or “babyish” until you
were in school, surrounded peers who had figured out the reality way before
you. Prepare to get a new nickname.

As
for the romance aspect of it, that age was raw in a lot of bad ways…but it was
really, really exciting in others. I’d feel these strong crushes, these instant
connections to girls I had just met. And feeling that was heartbreaking, but
exhilarating. That sense of unrequited “love,” the longing for something just
out of reach…there’s something sweet about that. I wanted to capture that…the
fact that humiliation was very real and could be had on a grand scale…but so
was the ability to find a strong emotional connection to someone, and how the
obstacles inherent in getting to know someone could intensify those emotions…

When
I (Jen) met you, you talked about your first experience with a school deciding
to un-invite you from speaking to their students because of the content of your
book. Can you talk about what that felt like as an author? Do you have anything
to say in response to people who want to ban your book, Sidekicks, or books in
general?

It
felt lousy. Look, as an author, you have to come to terms with the fact that
not everyone is going to derive the meaning from your work that you intended.
You can only hope that many more people will get what you were going for than
not. What was frustrating to me was this belief that what I was doing in the
first half of Sidekicks was only for cheap laughs, so that I could squeeze in
as many inappropriate jokes as I possibly could. I felt like people who read it
like that were missing what I was going for. I can go on for pages on this (and
I may have to write a sprawling blog post to further elaborate), but I’ll try
to be brief (and hopefully not sound too defensive). Here’s the thing about boys and inappropriate, inopportune,
and completely uncontrollable reactions in the nethers…as a teen, you knew it
was going to happen. The only thing you could hope was that when it did, you had
a means of either hiding it or deflecting attention away from it. But that was
the least of your problems. The biggest concern (at least for me) was that
people were going to think that I was some kind of pervert…that whatever I was
doing at the moment of the “reaction,” no matter how innocent, was somehow
motivated by sex…if I couldn’t control my own body, what else couldn’t I
control? WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION
YOUNG MAN?!?

And
that dovetails with what people think about superheroes. In the comics there are only a couple
of acceptable motivations for someone to go out and perform some costumed,
vigilante justice. You could
either be a thrill seeker, a do-gooder, or someone out for vengeance. There
have been some experiments with having heroes looking to make some money, but
they’ve been few and far between. The one motivation that has been pretty
verboten is sexual, and with good reason. It’d be icky and creepy to find out
that the person who came to your rescue was doing it just to get a little “satisfaction”…especially
if that someone were wearing a costume. Very few people want to be an unwitting
participant in some anonymous person’s fantasy. Yuck.

When
we meet Scott, he’s struggling with something that all kids his age struggle
with…why does he do what he does? What are his motivations for the way he acts?
What is his IDENTITY? What happens when you’re pretty sure your motivations are
altruistic, but your body betrays you, and puts those motivations in doubt (for
you and the public at large)? That’s why the public freaks out a bit (Janet
Jackson at the Super Bowl, anyone?), his classmates are merciless (because
they’re wrestling with the same issue, and are reaaalllly uncomfortable about
it), and his archenemy uses it as ammo (anything to win). It isn’t until he
meets someone (a girl, no less) willing to goof on him about it, but still talk
to him (without running away screaming), that he realizes that what happened
wasn’t a statement about his moral character. His personality is more
convincing evidence that he’s a good person than the “reaction.” The book is
about normalizing that reaction…it happens, sure…but you as a person don’t have
to be defined by that (regardless of whether other people want to define you
like that). You get to define yourself, by your own parameters.

As for people who want to ban books, if you want to prevent your own kids from learning how the world works, that’s your business...but don’t try to dictate to me what my kids can read. That is none of your business. I want my kids to be intellectually curious, with the idea that if they come across something they’re not yet ready for, they KNOW they can come to my wife and me to discuss it. But the idea that if you block access to something “objectionable,” children will somehow avoid encountering it is ridiculous... Children may be exposed to it in a different way, and without the proper knowledge, be ill-equipped to handle it.

The
Quick Fix, the sequel to your first novel, The Big Splash, will be out in
September. Can you tell us a little bit about the series and The Quick Fix?

Sure!
In The Big Splash, Matt Stevens is smart, witty, and tough as a steak from the
school cafeteria. He's a middle
school Philip Marlowe, and he just did something he said he'd never do: he accepted
a job from Vinny "Biggs".

Vincent
Biggio is a pre-teen Al Capone. Vinny's got his chubby little fingers in a lot
of illegal pies baked at Franklin Junior High: extortion, racketeering, black
market sales of stolen exams. Matt trusts Vinny like a deer trusts a guy in an
orange vest, but Vinny just made him an offer that was hard to refuse: twenty
bucks to return a good luck charm Vinny had lent out long ago. The problem? The
girl he lent it to is Nicole Finnegan, a.k.a. Nikki Fingers, the most feared
squirt gun assassin at Franklin Junior High.

Life
at Franklin is tough, like trying to play the piano in oven mitts. Get on the wrong
side of Vinny Biggs and you'll find yourself in "the Outs," the least
popular "club" in school. How'd you get there? Water, apple juice,
cat pee. anything liquid, strategically splattered below your belt for maximum
humiliation.

While
Matt is negotiating the return of Vinny's good luck charm, someone puts Nikki
in "the Outs". Matt has
to juggle two clients (Vinny Biggs and Jenny Finnegan, Nikki's younger sister)
as he tries to find the trigger kid.
Was it Joey Renoni, the hit kid with a high-pitched giggle and a hair
trigger? Was it Kevin Carling,
Vinny's right-hand man, and the boyfriend that Nikki left behind when she quit
the life? Or was it some other kid with soda-induced courage and a big beef
against Nikki? Matt's got to watch his back, and especially his front, as he
works a case that's harder to navigate than the streets of downtown Boston.

In
the Quick Fix, Matt is hired by a cheerleader (Melissa Scott) to find out why
her boyfriend (Will Atkins, captain of the basketball team and all-around
school hero) is acting strangely. While Matt is investigating, Melissa is put
in the Outs, and a valuable object that Will gave her to hold is stolen. When every shady character in the Frank
(especially Vinny Biggs) is hot to get their hands on that object, Matt
realizes that this case was a lot more than he expected…and may be his last…

At
Teach Mentor Texts, we are all about promoting literacy and spreading the love
of books. How do you finish the statement: Writing is...?

…more
fun than being eaten by wasps*! (*sometimes)

What
about: Reading is...?

…what you just finished
doing. And now you’re doing it
again! And again! And—ah…you get the point…